GDHQNFL14_f-Zone Read3

Minnesota Vikings Gameday HQ

You can bet Moore caught some grief in the film room
because of that play, from both his coaches and teammates. The
fact that he actually stopped and looked at Tuel before deciding
to continue after Dixon must have elicited some howls from
fellow teammates. But can you blame him? The zone read is in
the Buffalo playbook for starter E.J. Manuel, who has the speed
to pull off such a play. Tuel isn’t expected to run freely for a first
down, even if he is facing a bunch of backups. But that’s the
power of the play. When run correctly, the zone read allows
When run correctly, the zone
read allows quarterbacks to
pick up big chunks of yardage
with little or no threat of a direct hit.
quarterbacks to pick up big chunks of yardage with little or no
threat of a direct hit—provided they’re smart enough to slide or
get out of bounds at the first sign of potential danger.
“I like to refer to it as free yards,” Seattle offensive coordinator
Darrell Bevell says. “If the defense disregards the quarterback,
he’ll take the free yards, get down and get to the next play.”
Two seasons ago, the arrivals of mobile rookie quarterbacks
Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson and the ascension to starter
status by Colin Kaepernick helped add a new element to NFL
offenses. Although the rules committee had worked diligently
to make it easier for the passing game to thrive, all of a sudden
QBs weren’t just launching throws all over the field; they were
also launching themselves past the line of scrimmage, often
untouched. For years, the trickle of influence in football went
from the pros to the college to the prep ranks. With RGIII and
the others on the scene, NFL coordinators like Bevell decided
to reach into the NCAA for some schematic adjustments that
made the most of their players’ talents.
Adding the zone read to playbooks did something that
hadn’t been around the professional game for a while:
it made defenses account for the quarterback in the
ground game. Instead of playing 11-on-10 once the
ball was handed off, teams now had to worry about
the QB sneaking out the back door. By the time the 2013 season
ended, zone read use had almost tripled, as teams like the Bills
and Eagles added its elements to their playbooks. Under firstyear
coach Chip Kelly, who utilized the zone read heavily while
at Oregon, Philadelphia used the scheme 31 percent of the time
THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES SPORT
Robert Griffin III has amassed more than 1,300 yards rushing in two seasons, but concerns
about his long term health will keep the Washington QB in the pocket more in 2014.